Disney is already reeling from “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” not panning out.
Now, the Mouse House is dealing with the remake of “Haunted Mansion.” No stars, no publicity. nothing. A price tag of at least $150 million.
By no stars, I don’t mean to denigrate Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson, or Tiffany Haddish. Also, there are unbilled cameos from Jared Leto and Marilu Henner. But there’s no one on the level of Eddie Murphy, who toplined the original movie.
And the result? Just $24 million for the opening weekend. Unless it suddenly goes viral, “Haunted Mansion” is about to be repossessed.
The writing was on the walls of the mansion. Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it a 41%. The audience score is 85%. No one liked it, or wanted it.
Why even remake “Haunted Mansion”? The original, in 2003, starred Eddie Murphy, Terrence Stamp, Jennifer Tilly, and Wally Shawn. It got a 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was a bad, bad movie. It made $75 million over 21 weeks. With Murphy and special effects, it undoubtedly lost money
But studios figure Why not just keep remaking the same old stuff?
Disney has had one stroke of luck: the animated “Elemental” started out very slow, but picked up steam as the summer dragged on. Parents took their kids, and “Elemental” managed to make $144 US and almost $400 million international. Maybe “Haunted Mansion” can follow that path.
